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Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Nashville.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

"He's such a kind human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."

A Prolific Career

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, consisting of keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "involved in the majority of record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."